Station #4: Welfare to Work CONTEXT The term “Virtue of Work” infers that one’s labors are intended to benefit the community at large. Now recall the contemporary stigma associated with unemployment. Several months ago, U.S. Senator Jon Kyl’s argued against extending unemployment benefits to people in need of welfare. According to Kyl: “There is a virtue in finding and keeping a job for the betterment of the community.” In the Washington D.C. news publication The Hill, Kyl claimed that extending welfare and unemployment benefits “acts as a disincentive for people to find new work” and “dissuades people from job-hunting.” Kyl’s claims reminded of how that virtue helped create and maintains stereotypes regarding joblessness.
Play the short video clip. Pay special attention to the use of the words “welfare,” “work,” and “community.” Consider the organization of information within the clip—the premises stated and inferred by the narrator, and the conclusions at which he arrives.
Play the three short video clips below. As you watch and listen, be sure to keep informal notes below. What statements, motifs (recurring images, dialogue, symbols, or idea), and themesimmediately strike you as memorable or exigent (emotionally impactful)? As you watch, keep the following questions in mind. (Do not formally answer them. Use them as a basis for your note-taking.)
The “Welfare to Work” program was intended to make formerly unemployed people recognize the virtue of work by forcing them to repay welfare money. In what specific direct and indirect ways might “the virtue of work” lend itself to making our social problems within communities worse?
Is the organization of material in the clip itself logical or illogical? Does it make a strong argument, or is its argument weakened by assumptions and circumstantial evidence?
What arguments are Marxist in nature? What specific tenets could a cultural critic cite in a “reading” of this clip?
Click here for the first video clip. Click here for the second video clip. Click here for the third video clip.
Finally, engage in a small-group discussion. Each member of the group must contribute to the process by fulfilling an assigned role. Then, in a thoughtful, “MEL-style” short essay response, answer this question:
What specific information should a Marxist critic consider in an analysis of this text? Using that information as evidence, what meaning can we make of this text, using Marxist tenets as our “lenses”?
CONTEXT
The term “Virtue of Work” infers that one’s labors are intended to benefit the community at large. Now recall the contemporary stigma associated with unemployment. Several months ago, U.S. Senator Jon Kyl’s argued against extending unemployment benefits to people in need of welfare. According to Kyl: “There is a virtue in finding and keeping a job for the betterment of the community.” In the Washington D.C. news publication The Hill, Kyl claimed that extending welfare and unemployment benefits “acts as a disincentive for people to find new work” and “dissuades people from job-hunting.” Kyl’s claims reminded of how that virtue helped create and maintains stereotypes regarding joblessness.
Play the short video clip. Pay special attention to the use of the words “welfare,” “work,” and “community.” Consider the organization of information within the clip—the premises stated and inferred by the narrator, and the conclusions at which he arrives.
Play the three short video clips below. As you watch and listen, be sure to keep informal notes below. What statements, motifs (recurring images, dialogue, symbols, or idea), and themes immediately strike you as memorable or exigent (emotionally impactful)? As you watch, keep the following questions in mind. (Do not formally answer them. Use them as a basis for your note-taking.)
The “Welfare to Work” program was intended to make formerly unemployed people recognize the virtue of work by forcing them to repay welfare money. In what specific direct and indirect ways might “the virtue of work” lend itself to making our social problems within communities worse?
Is the organization of material in the clip itself logical or illogical? Does it make a strong argument, or is its argument weakened by assumptions and circumstantial evidence?
What arguments are Marxist in nature? What specific tenets could a cultural critic cite in a “reading” of this clip?
Click here for the first video clip. Click here for the second video clip. Click here for the third video clip.
Finally, engage in a small-group discussion. Each member of the group must contribute to the process by fulfilling an assigned role. Then, in a thoughtful, “MEL-style” short essay response, answer this question:
What specific information should a Marxist critic consider in an analysis of this text? Using that information as evidence, what meaning can we make of this text, using Marxist tenets as our “lenses”?